X23's Very Merry XMas
by xXSister GrimmXx
Summary: Laura contemplates the meaning of Christmas, and her current direction in life. She even gets a surprise visit from a close friend!


**Disclaimer: THE CHARACTERS IN THIS TITLE ARE NOT MY OWN. THEY ARE THE PROPERTY OF MARVEL COMICS, AND THEIR AFFILIATES. **

**Note: Hey everyone. This is my very first piece of published fan-fiction. I've dabbled with stories before, but I've never seen them all the way through. I realize this isn't thing longest story in the world, or really even the most in depth, but we all have to start somewhere right? Anyway, I wrote this story on Christmas Eve of this year after sitting around the house all day in my usual Grinch-like mood. While sitting around I took the time to read back through X-23 #19, and while doing so I got to thinking about how Laura's solo title is soon coming to an end. That's when it struck me to write this. I thought it fit with the holiday vibe pretty well, and I thought that it would be a fitting end to Laura's run. Kind of a capstone to the stories that Marjorie Liu has shared with us during her stint with the character. I think I'm rambling now so I'll shut up, and let you read. I hope you enjoy the story. Oh, and please leave feedback!**

**X-23's Very Merry X-Mas**

Laura Kinney sat on the stoop of the luxurious apartment Gambit had provided for her the previous week. It was the evening before Christmas, or Christmas Eve for those that celebrated the holiday. Laura had never given it much thought herself, but recently she had taken a new perspective of herself, of her life, of where she was meant to be. Since she had left the X-Men she had been through quite a lot actually, and changed just as much. Before she would never have given the holiday a second thought. Now though, she was thinking heavily on it.

She had been sitting on the top stair for hours now, the cold wind, her thoughts, and random stare from a passerby her only company. Despite it being a family oriented holiday there were still people out in droves. The city truly never slept it would seem. She largely ignored the on-goings about her though, instead making an intense study of her untied shoe, watching the laces dangle loosely from the eyelets they wound through. She was hunched over, and intent in her thoughts, an old leather coat lined with fur keeping the worst of the chill off her slender frame when a familiar voice called out.

"Hey d'ere petite, why the frown," Gambit drawled to her in his usual thick accent. He was nicely dressed she noted, wearing a pair of black slacks, and polished black shoes. He was bundled warmly inside a long gray trench coat as well, and around his neck hung a wool scarf that matched his outfit. He gave he a roguish grin as he sauntered up the steps, taking an uninvited seat at her side, waiting for Laura to respond with a gentleness in his fiery red eyes.

"I did not realize I was frowning," Laura replied, not truly wanting to open up her brooding thoughts to him despite their recent closeness. She wasn't sure how to articulate them in any case.

"Oh, is 'dat so petite? I've seen many a pretty lady frown in my time, an' if 'dat wasn't one then I don't know what is."

"I was only thinking," she responded, intentionally vague, but she could tell by the look he gave her that he wasn't going to be so easily dissuaded. "I was thinking about Christmas," she finally admitted, a look of consternation crossing her features at having had it dragged out of her.

Gambit arched a brow wryly at Laura, a hint of surprise alighting on his features. "That right, eh? Care to elaborate, or is a man meant to be guessin' in the dark?"

Laura gave a sigh, not sharing in Gambit's mirth as he prodded her further for answers. "I am not certain to be honest. I was thinking of a lot of things. Why do people celebrate Christmas? Why do they buy one another gifts? I do not see the point. If someone wished to give someone something why do they need a special day to do so?"

Gambit nodded his head as he listened to her as her questions, lending an attentive ear to the outcast girl he had grown so fond of. While she had been talking he had adopted a more comfortable position on the steps, leaning back to rest his elbows across the step above him while stretching his legs out languidly. "Ah, I see petite. You're searchin' for the meaning of Christmas, but I think you're searchin' too hard for the answers."

Laura furrowed her brows at his response, it was decidedly not what she had expected, and now she found herself regarding him with an inquisitive look in her green eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I only mean 'dat maybe the answers you're seekin' ain't so hard to find is all. Maybe sometimes people, they just need a little something' to look forward to, a little cheer. That's all"

Laura listened intently to what Gambit had to say. She was a clever girl, but normal emotions and responses often eluded her. She thought she understood what he meant though. "So you are saying that it is not about giving, or receiving? You are saying it is about hope?"

"I don't believe I could 'ave put it better myself petite" Gambit paused to give her a smile,, his thin lips curling up at their corners, and crinkling the stubble covered skin on his cheeks. "People jus' need a little hope in there lives. They need something' to look forward to, a light in the darkness if you will," he went on, illustrating his point with motions of his hands.

"A light in the darkness," Laura mouthed silently, repeating Gambit's final words. "I believe I understand." She suddenly realized she hadn't thought to ask why he was here in the first place. She had been so caught up in her own thoughts that it hadn't even occurred to her to ask. "Why are you here anyway? Do you not have someone better to share your Christmas Eve with?"

Her question obviously provoked a sensitive area for Gambit as his expression saddened almost imperceptibly. He remained quiet for a long moment, not firing back with his normal quick witted responses that she had grown accustomed to. Finally he said, "Non petite, I don' believe she'll 'ave me around at least. That's another story though. Non, your pappy asked me to check on you. See how you're doin'. I thought I might oblige him seein' as how I was goin' to stop by anyway to give you this," he finished, producing a long slender box, wrapped in red paper, and adorned with a green bow. He held it out to her in his right hand. "Go on now petite, take it."

Laura eyed the present reluctantly. She could count on one hand the number of times she had been given something in her lifetime, and some of the things given her she would have rather been under better circumstances. The stray though made her think of her mother, and she unthinkingly fingered the pendant that hung around her throat. Gambit still held out the package, giving her that same self-assured grin that came so easily to his face, when she snapped back from her brief reverie.

"Thank you," she said somewhat stiffly, taking the package in hand, and sitting it in her lap.

"Well aren't you gonna open it, or stare at it," Gambit asked after an estranged moment, realizing she wasn't moving to do just that.

"Oh, yes. I suppose," Laura replied, beginning to take apart the wrapping paper with a surgical precision. She managed to open it without a single tear, revealing a plain white box beneath, with a top that simply slipped on over it's base. Sitting the paper aside, she pried the box open. Inside there was nestled a thin, silver, chain. It was adorned with a few simple trinkets. A playing card, a pair of glasses, and a wolf. Laura pulled it from inside it's resting place, holding it up for closer inspection before turning her eyes back to Gambit.

"Well, what do you think petite? Do you like it? It was Jubilee's idea, somethin' to remind you of us after all the adventurin' we've been doin' lately. We didn't think Logan would go for it, but he did 'an we didn't even 'ave to give him a thump on his head to do it," Gambit rambled on, revealing the bracelets origins.

"I.. I do, it is a very nice gift. I do not have anything for you though Gambit," Laura told him, her green eyes flowing back to the silvery string of metal that she held dangling before her face. She felt an odd stir of emotion deep inside of her as she looked at it, the memories of their adventures together washing through her mind. "I will cherish this always Gambit," she told him, deftly fastening it to her tiny wrist, admiring the charms that hung from it one last time.

"I'm glad petite, an' I'm sure your pappy, an' Jubilee will be too. I'll be sure to let them know," he said rising from his seat on the steps at her side.

Laura remained seated, looking up at him, "You are leaving already?"

"Yes, petite. I need to get back to my other place. The night's still young an' Santa may still see it fit to bring an ol' rouge like me a nice present. Preferably a blonde type," Gambit told her with a devilish grin as he reached down to muss up her hair.

With that Gambit turned to leave, loping down the stairs, and onto the busy side-walk with his hands shoved deep in his trench coat's pockets. Laura watched him go in silence, thinking over their conversation as she did. She had learned a lot in their brief conversation, and had yet another new lesson learned. She'd had a lot of those lately, and the gift she'd been given would always remind her of those.

As Gambit disappeared in the sea of people going about their business she held her newly bejeweled wrist up, watching the three little trinkets that represented her companions sparkle in the street light. A smile crept across her face then. She had never felt accepted anywhere before, but strangely she felt accepted among those three. Gambit the erstwhile rogue, Jubilee the tenacious, but fun-loving, girl, and Wolverine, her… father. They were more than that now though, they were her friends. Something she had never truly considered anyone to be.

"Merry Christmas friends," she told the bracelet in a soft whisper before standing and walking onto the sidewalk to see if she could spread a little Christmas hope herself.


End file.
